Post-Soviet Russian Film and the Trauma of Globalization

Abstract

In this paper the author discusses how in post-Soviet times, after years of communal property and existence, Russia has reacted and adjusted itself toward the global expansion of Western capital with all the consequences of that process. The analysis focuses on three films, Mikhalkov’s The Barber of Siberia (1999), Fruntov’s All That of Which We’ve Dreamed So Long (1997), and Balabanov’s Of Freaks and Men (1998), which in different, very desperate ways illustrate Russia’s economic and cultural ambivalence towards Western economic and cultural growth. The paper pursues the cultural manifestations of the cost of a psychological crisis exacted at the level of both society and the individual.

Keywords:

• Imagined World
• Globalization
• New Colonialism
• Depression
• Nostalgia for the Past and Religion
• Vulgar Economy
• Rejection of Western Values
• Westernization vs. Russianization

Notes

Correspondence to: Yana Hashamova, Assistant Professor of Slavic, Film, and Comparative Studies, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, 232 Cunz Hall, 1841 Millikin Road, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

In this definition I am influenced by Arjun Appadurai’s idea that imagination, building on technological changes and global flows, has become a collective, social fact. This development in turn causes the plurality of imagined worlds (Appadurai 1996).

Susan Larsen offers an interesting analysis of post-Soviet Russian film but she is concerned mainly with Russian national identity in relation to the past (Larsen 1999, 192–217).

Neumann studies the Russian collective identity formation in relation to Europe in detail from the Napoleonic wars and the Decembrist uprising to the present and finds evidence of the Russian debate about its relation to Europe as early as mid fifteenth century (Neumann 1996).

Here I should point out that every ideology uses the same mechanism of denouncing the other. Both the West and the Soviet Union employed similar mechanisms for constructing the other as an “evil empire.” For more on American political demonology see Michael Rogin’s study on the subject (Rogin 1987).

For the use of the concept “global cultural flows” see Appadurai (1996).

Critics are divided in their perception of the love-story. Moskvina, a Russian film critic, considers the love-story line better integrated in the film than the epic scenes, although she has her reservation about the casting of the main actors and their acting (Moskvina 1999). According to Graffy, the romance is deprived of any psychological characterization and fails to symbolically represent the relationship between Russia and the US (Graffy 2000). These opinions, however, do not question Mikhalkov’s desire to promote such a relationship, albeit unsuccessfully.

Susan Larsen argues that Mikhalkov denounces the American inventor and his forest-harvesting machine presenting him as a “demonic imperialist” and creating “a hellish vision of murderous foreign technology.” By contrast, the director favors the values and “the traditions of Russian rural life” (Larsen 2003, 501). Larsen’s impression of the film’s critical representation of America is possible but only as one side of the complex, often contradictory, film images and scenes representing America. One should not forget the reverence Mikhalkov makes to the English-speaking world: 70 percent of the film’s dialogue is uttered in English, a remark Larsen makes but concludes nothing. Also, some American characters are created more sympathetic than their Russian counterparts, which will be discussed later in the article.

The Russian film critic, Aleksandr Arkhangel’skii, has written one of the most negative reviews (Arkhangel’skii 1999). Some viewers have also vehemently expressed their disappointment on the Internet. See, for example, http://www.exler.ru/films/18-05-2000.htm.

Trafficking in women is organized crime, which has rapidly increased after the collapse of communism. Young women from former socialist countries are being lured, cheated, and sold out for involuntary prostitution in the West.

All translations from Russian are mine unless otherwise stated.

Birgit Beumers notes this subversion of social structures in her study on contemporary Russian film (Beumers 1999, 86).

Helena Goscilo offers an insightful gender analysis of Russian society based on popular magazines. She points out, “amidst voluble feminist bashing and laments about a crisis in male identity, the 1990s have witnessed the emergence of several magazines patently intended to boost men’s morale and supply guidelines for their image construction in the brave new world of market machismo” (Goscilo 2000, 27).

This is not an exclusively Russian tradition. Other nations also symbolize themselves by women.

See also Zizek who offers a similar argument about the post-communist relations between the West and former socialist countries (Zizek 1993, 208).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yana Hashamova

Correspondence to: Yana Hashamova, Assistant Professor of Slavic, Film, and Comparative Studies, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, 232 Cunz Hall, 1841 Millikin Road, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. E-mail: [email protected]